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2021 Lenten Series: Week 2

Added Apr 16, 2021 •

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welcome back for our second Friday Lenten speaker series last week we were thrilled to have dr.ken Craycraft come talk about a new look at the Ten Commandments he went over an overview of the Ten Commandments and then they'll fit into the first commandment a worship is more relaxed if you miss that it's it's it was live-streamed so you can access it by going to the website that Church website click on the box that says watch math here and there's no math going on you'll be able to see previous broadcast I'm just swiped left until you hit the February 19th date and you'll see it there I so today we're thrilled again to bring back Doctor Ken Craycraft talk about the second and the third commandment religion is Justice and Leisure thank you Donna and it's good to be back with you I enjoyed talking to you last weekend I've been looking forward to to tonight as well as I did last week I want to give an overview of the overview and basically what I want to do tonight with the over start by suggesting a way in which we sometimes perhaps don't take into account the fullness of what it means to be social people in especially in these hyper politicized time there's a sense in which we tend to reduce our social and even our moral lives 2222 political life and Even parties in life and I mentioned a little bit. That last week every time I bring that up now is because the second and third man is that we're going to talk about tonight have to be understood in the context of a broad thick understanding of social life not necessarily just political life and a little bit weird we talkin about work at for example and work has all kinds of components to it that are an aspect of what it means to be social people social beings and and we want to take that seriously especially in the context of the 3rd so tonight we're going to look at the second and third and this is the last of this is the last night and which will take them in the in the order that God gave them to Moses I think the guy I should have put them in a different order so I'm going to put them in the order that should have put them in from from here on out but tonight we'll look at the second and the third you know it reminds me actually actually a lot of a very funny scene in the ten command the name now but anyway movie I think move is called Moses anyway that it's a comedy it's a male know when a Blazing Saddles guy anyway he plays Moses and he comes down and goes up to the mount and Israel is waiting for me to bring down the Commandments and he comes down with three tablets and he says he says Israel behold the 15 and 1 slip out of the pan and since crashes to the ground and he says Israel be the Ten Commandments we all know what happened to those other five Commandments but presumably Mel Brooks Red done that's it was so so I'm not going to add or delete but I am going to change the order starting next week but tonight we're going to begin with you still not take the name of the Lord your God in vain and it wouldn't be interesting to have me here speaking to you if I didn't say something that was unusual or hopefully novel or unique in the way that you understand these Commandments and I hope that's the case tonight the second commandment is perhaps the most difficult of The Commandments to understand and Italy for a very simple reason the command you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain we don't know God's name God tells us not to take his name in vain but he won't tell us his name as matter fact in the most famous account of trying to find out what God's name is God persistently refused to stay so we're going to start our reflection tonight last week we didn't start with Genesis with Exodus 20 Deuteronomy 5 tonight we're not going to start with access 20 or Deuteronomy 5 rather what we're going to start at the third chapter of Exodus verses 10 through 14 as soon as I find it here I had everything all call cute up here on my iPad and and then of course all right God says to Moe's No Moses Moses his 10 State the chief of his father-in-law Jethro and this is why all Israel is still course in slavery in Egypt and God says come now I've send you to Pharaoh this is from the burning bush as you'll recall to lead my people the Israelites out of Egypt but Moses said to God who am I that I should go to pharaoh and leave the Israelites out of Egypt answered I will be with you in this will be proof that it is I who have sent you when you bring my people out of Egypt you will worship God on this very Mountain but said Moses to God when I go to the Israelites and say them the god of your fathers has sent me to you if they ask me what is his name what am I to tell them God replied I am who I am this is what you will tell the Israelites I am sent me are you God says to Moses God doesn't answer Moses with his name God answers Moses with a description of who he is he doesn't say this is my name he says I am who I am as a matter of fact and then we're going to have a little bit of Hebrew grammar lesson tonight the form of the verb that God uses to speak to Moses can either mean I am who and or I will who are my I will be who I will be in other words there is a sense of timelessness and Transcendence in the very naming of God in the burning bush to Moses this indeed is it in itself a profound and and revolutionary religious statement in in Antiquity because the gods and antics we were fine I God's they were they were part of time and space they were often times mortal but they were always they always experience time in in in a similar way or at least in Malaga suede when Moses goes to ask God who God is God will not give him his name but rather description I am who I am or I will be who will I do I will be now this signifies that God cannot be contained by a name naming Antiquity applies and substance control when we name something we assert that we know something about it and if we know something about it and we have some call over it think about stories about naming in the Old Testament for example the best one is the name of Israel Israel Jacob was renamed Israel after he struggled with an angel of God God says I will rename you Israel because Israel means to struggle with God and throughout Israel's history both Israel the man and Israel the nation sometimes they struggled longsine God sometimes they struggled against God painting has a connotation of control over something and God cannot be controlled God cannot be contained and God cannot be named he cannot be named figuratively because he transcends Nae Nae but neither can God be named literally in the Hebrew tradition the Jews when they worship the present-day ancestors of present-day Heirs of the Hebrew tradition when the Jews worship they have no name for God they don't refer to God by name and they don't attempt to refer to God by name on Mike we Christians and and and I'll leave it I'll leave it to someone else to judge where the Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians or not but and Jehovah's Witnesses we presume to be able to try to name God but let me tell you why the Jews don't try to name. And wife in the state to try to do so from what God said to Moses from the burning bush when God said I am who I am the Hebrew word in the Hebrew Bible is a word that we refer to as the tetragrammaton now that's just a long Greek word actually that means before letters and the four letters that God uses are the Hebrew words yodh hey hey the Hebrew alphabet doesn't contain valves valves are supplied either by oral tradition or by what are called Val points some of you have been to the Holy Land if you look at any of the true signs in Jerusalem you won't see vows you might see points but you might not even see points you'll just see consonant because there are no vowels in the Hebrew language at 9 out the name that God uses are the words God uses when he speaks to Moses the Yoda hey Bob hey rather is a short ver where do we get but of course you've often heard Yahweh perhaps you said it you've often heard Jehovah indeed they were the popular tranter is it popular translation of the Bible called the Jehovah Bible where we're of the as I just mentioned a few minutes ago the Jehovah's Witnesses although Yahweh or Jehovah Yahweh is attempt to try to pronounce the tetragrammaton in a way that would be consistent with Hebrew grammar for water called valve points not letters but points that they put above and below the letters in order to assist in pronunciation and if you would if you would point the Yoda hey valve hey the tetragrammaton by according to standards of Hebrew grammar then it would probably be pronounced something like Yahweh overcome this problem when a Hebrew reader of scripture get to any place in the Hebrew Bible where the tetragrammaton appears there's a there's a an institution in Hebrew reading called category in which you read something on the page but you say something different why is that here's why is to preserve the Holy Name it's to not risk saying the Holy Name why so that it won't be said in vain and so the Jews will not even attempt to pronounce the tetragrammaton the Yoda hey Bob hey so what I did was they put Val points for a different word over the tetragrammaton in the Hebrew Bible and if you pick up a Hebrew Bible today and if you can read it when you get to this word you'll see Val points for a different one and the word that the vowel points correspond with make the Petra Gromit on unpronounceable I Hebrew could not pronounce it because it violates standards of Hebrew valpoint grammar in the same way that if you saw English word that had the wrong vowel in it or something like that you would have you wouldn't be able or I would not be able to pronounce it so what the Hebrew reader does when he gets there with a Jewish rye or does when he gets to that word is he doesn't attempt to pronounce the The Grommet on he pronounces the word that's used in its place that corresponds to the valve point and that word usually in the Hebrew tradition is the word for Lord or a do 9 and if you can without points for a donut I put them with the tetragrammaton it comes out as something like Jehovah but it is a grammatically incorrect pronunciation of the term of the word again I'll leave it to you to others to judge whether it in Thai religious tradition that is built upon a mispronunciation of God's name what that means but there it is so in Jewish practice is the case it will say the word out of night but more often it's the case that Jews taking seriously the second commandment refer to God as Hashem ha is a Hebrew is the Hebrew word for the it's and Shem is the Hebrew word for name the most common way that God is referred to and Hebrew word is Hashem the name the article ha the and the name once again why is that is to its to take away the risk of using the name in vain and of course because of course if you can't say the name if you don't pronounce the name you can't be using it in vain and that's the that's the theory behind it in again if you go to a h-2a add a meeting in any synagogue in Cincinnati or anywhere when they get to any place where the tetragrammaton appears they will say out and I or they will say Hashem and Andy Bell Greek one and Hashem bless you the name bless you. God bless you sometimes is back you'll even see observant Jews write God as g - d again is that because that's not good that if you were to besmirch it if you were to erase it if you're to disfigure it you're not disfigure in God's name because G Dash D doesn't spell God we know what it means but that's not what it's about we can't use the word or the name in vain is important that is and as important as we shut ourselves take it not to use God's name in a frivolous way or not to refer to God in a frivolous way it has to have a broader meaning than that for it really to have a purchase on our moral lied and for it to apply to what we will call morality as Justice that is rendering to God what God is due and the white the place we go for that Fuller meaning that that broader meaning that makes a claim Upon Our Lives is not the Old Testament at all but the New Testament in the Book of John specifically John does the gospel of st. John chapter 8 verses 51 to 59 Jesus speaking says amen amen I say to you whoever keeps my word will never see that Santa Teresita said to him now we are sure that you are possessed Abraham died as did the prophets yet you say whoever keeps my word will never taste death are you greater than our Father Abraham who died or the prophets who died who do you make yourself out to be Jesus answered if I go by myself my glory is worth nothing but it is my father who glorifies me of whom you say he is he is our God you do not know him but I know him and if I should say that I do not know him I would be like liar but I do know him and I keep his word Abraham your father was rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad said the Jews said to him you are not yet 50 is old and you've seen Abraham Jesus said to him to them amen amen I say to you before Abraham came to be I am Jesus and cell calls our attention to the burning bush in which God first revealed himself as a personal but Transcendent God to Moses to these Pharisees who tried to entrap him by using a are Greek translation of the same Hebrew word I am Jesus is here in in the most unequivocal place that we find in the entire New Testament Jesus identifying himself as God and not just in any particular dinner in a general way but in a very particular way that God revealed himself to Moses a story that every Jewish scholar every Jewish teacher every observant educator literate do an ancient Palestine would be familiar with and Jesus associate himself with that Jesus says I am in other words the name that's not a name that God revealed to Moses is name that that describes Jesus himself so when we say do not take the lord's name in vain we don't just mean the word with a small w we mean the Eternal Word the law who identifies himself with God the Father the second person of the Holy Trinity does Jesus direct lamps and identifies himself with God and of course to the Jewish mind that's blasphemy and it is ours as well if it's not true if Jesus is not who he says he is this is a famous formulation from the sea at Via pop Christian apologist CS Lewis better known for The Chronicles of Narnia but Louis famously said that Jesus is one of three things he's a liar he's a lunatic or he's the Lord you have to choose one he's a liar he's crazy or he is who he says he is so what does the second commandment mean for us then it means this and if we call ourselves by his name that is if we call ourselves Christians we cannot render that meaningless by a public witness that contradicts it Bane in this sentence means without meaningful content devoid of meaning without appreciable effect or consequence to put it another way the prohibition the prescription against taking the lord's name in vain means don't call yourself by my name and live a life that is a false witness to what my name means in other words the second commandment should be understood at least and strong part as an monition against giving Scandal to the name of Christ by giving Scandal to at by giving false witness to the tenants of faith of course this is especially true for Publix those are other people in the public eye when Donna contacted me last year to give the series of lectures my request the request her request to me was to put this in the context of social Doctrine and social ethics and rasp are are wise as social beings and creatures when we think about taking the lord's name in vain in this is obviously something that's in the headline I won't name names but you know it you know who I'm talking about there's if there's a particular politician who at least to some of us seems to take the lord's name in vain by the positions that he takes while proclaiming to be called by that name this gives public scandal the prohibition against taking God's name in vain is an admonition to render to God what God is do and that is to live according to the name that God lends to us in the early Church Christian was a pejorative term in other words Christian's didn't take the name upon themselves Christians didn't call themselves Christians they called them the Lord in the earliest days of the church they didn't call them in some cells anything but Jews For Whom the Messiah had come they were small call Jewish and to the authorities in the early years of the church they were a small Jewish sect but they were a small Jewish sect that followed this guy Jesus Christ and so they were they were called Christian by their opponents in the word just means little Christ so these little Christ running around these this little obscure sect of Jews that were pejoratively called a little price but what does that mean it means that they are identified by their actions and therefore given a name by those actions the task of we Christians is not to claim the name for ourselves but for others to call us by that name and if they can't call us by that name we are violating the second commandment if you can't look at me and say that when is a Christian then I am violating the second commandment I get it from you you get it from me I don't take the name you give it to me in the only way that you can give it to me is if I'm living a lie it doesn't make it empty if I claim it for myself and make it empty I'm giving Scandal and it's interesting that when we think about Scandal especially for those in the public eye the concert months of violating the second commandment come in Stark relief and for this weekend again I want to go to a New Testament passage this one from the Gospel of Luke Luke chapter 17 verses 1 and 2 Jesus said to his disciples things that cause sin will inevitably occur but go to the person through whom they occur it would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and it be thrown into the sea then for him to cause one of these little ones to send in other words Jesus is saying sin will happen you will send I will send send will happen Jesus not saying I will send I'm referring to me I will send you will send send will happen he came to forgive that sin but he says woe to those who cause another to sin another way of thinking about that is woe to those to lead another into falsehood how by the false witness of making my name vein think about it in two different ways one way of giving Scandal is to induce girls who call themselves by that name to embrace falsehood this is the public witness of many so-called Catholic politicians I want to be careful when I say so call Catholic politicians because I don't want to be misunderstood we're Catholic by virtue of our baptism baptism like every other Sacrament is an indelible seal it cannot be taken away it cannot be undone person is baptized to the states that person is a Catholic so I use the word so-called I'm not questioning nor do I have the authority or ability to question whether or not that person is a member of the body of Christ when I mean by that are men the body of Christ who's allies either by the things they do or the things they say are not consistent with that name that is to say taking the name in vain Nair for leading others by their public. Witness of the meaning of the name to lead others into are now let's not just say yes we know who you're talking about and that's a terrible saying let's also think about ourselves because why we don't command the stage we certainly have a public a public presence we certainly do have a public the other people and we are just as capable of leading others into to stumble as someone with a large date obviously the target is much smaller but it's no less important because every soul counts so we have a an affirmative duty to educate ourselves in the face so that we understand that if we call ourselves Christians then we aren't taking that word in Vain by making it devoid of content or empty of meaning in other words I said earlier if you can't look at me and call me a Christian and yet ice has been pissed that I am a Christian I'm making the name empty I'm making the name boy that's on me a second way to Scandal a second problem is Scandal causes is not simply to lead others who call themselves by the name into moral or theological error but rather to be an anti evangelist what do I mean by that if this person calls himself a Christian and yet this is the kind of life he leads that I don't want to be a Christian now to be sure that can't have a connotation with your leading a good life because there's a lot of people who see what it takes to be a Christian including joining our cells to suffering being open to others and so forth but there's another way very prominent way in which somebody says if that's how Christians behave I don't want any part of it in other words that's a giving Scandal and emptying the name of the Lord emptying the name of what it being things to be a Christian and causing Scandal not by Leading others who call themselves by that name and two are but indeed by acting as a an anti evangelist causing others to be repelled by the face rather than to embrace and be attracted by the faith the classic definition of justice and the Christian tradition is to render another person what he is do we actually bought definition from pre-christian Greek philosophical sources but it's a good definition and it's the definition that we use Justice is a virtue it's the virtue of rendering to another what another is do we call religion and aspect of justice and therefore we call religion a virtue Justice is the general virtue and deed of course it's one of the four cardinal virtues religion is a if you think about it at as a species and genus Justice is the genus religion is one of the species of Justice religion therefore is rendering to God what God is do we we render to God what God is do by not taking the name of the Lord in vain but rather if we assume that now if we wear that name then we live a life that is consistent with that name let me tell you something that that maybe make might make a few of you squirm a little bit and I didn't is too dark anyway so I didn't canvas the parking lot but this is one of the reasons to be perfectly honest because of my own shortcomings and because of not the possibility of my own ability to cause Scandal I don't know our house my my wife and my family's house is full of Sacrament sacramentals in and icons and images and crucifixes and rosary beads cut people off sometimes I cut people off in a way maybe level less than accidental sometimes I give people look the perhaps isn't the most Christian way of looking at them I prefer and I I'm not I don't judge anybody for a while because because most of you were probably much virtuous drivers than I am but just to give you an example I prefer not to take the risk to someone will that I will cut someone off either by accident or inadvertently or less so and that person will see something on my car and associate with with being with with my professor religious faith and be scandalized by it why I don't want to empty God's name of its meeting Christ name of this meeting even buy something that I might inadvertently do so when we talked about not taking the lord's name in vain of course we obviously mean that we don't use the name of Jesus or Christ or any of the same in a way that is derogatory obviously that's prohibited obviously that's an easy way of understanding the admonition not to take the lord's name in vain but at the end of the day the God who calls us is a God who has no no he's a God who was being he calls us to transform ourselves into people who are like him and therefore to order Alive's toward him and to fill his name to give me meaning to his name by our actions before others Jesus in The Great Commission told us to go out and be a witness to the nation's evangelizing the Nations baptizing them his name we can't be a witness to the nation's if we empty his name that's the second commandment don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain as a matter of fact not only the second commandment say not to take the name of the Lord in vain it attaches a penalty and the penalty is very consistent with the penalty that that Jesus described in in the Gospels you take the lord's name in vain says the Lord quoting again from Genesis from The Exodus the Lord will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain before I move on to the third commandment let me just go back to one little detail that I that I didn't mention before in this will be fun for you when you read your Bible now if you didn't notice before if you read practically any English translation of the Bible including the new American Pie which is used in the Catholic lectionary in in the missile whenever you get to that that tetragrammaton those for Hebrew letters that God revealed himself to Moses as that Yahweh or the tetragrammaton whenever you see the word Lord in all capital letters and all capital letters that is an instance of the tetragrammaton in the text whenever you see Lord with just an initial uppercase L and then lowercase ORD then that probably is the Hebrew word Adonai which is just a word that that means sir and it much the way that the Lord can mean sir in the English or it might prefer if it's in the New Testament if it might it might be it will probably refer to Jesus but not Jesus has obviously the tetragrammaton so when you read the Old Testament and you come across in all caps the word Lord you're looking at God's name that's not a name that's a description the second command the second commandment tells us that we oh God are single-minded Goshen all we do is to be ordered for. I love our love for him and by his love for us thus it is just. It is just it is Justin Wright that we render to God what is due to God by not emptying the name of its meaning and that's the second commandment the third commandment has to draw parts one is related to Creation the second is related to the story that God tells us that makes us who we are so again the third command has two broad Parts one is related to creation and the second is related to the story that God tells us that makes us who we are the third command is this remember to keep holy Sabbath day 6 days you may labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath Sabbath of the Lord all uppercase no work may be done then either by you or your son or daughter or your male or female slave or your Beast or by the alien who lives with you in six days the Lord made the heavens and the Earth the sea and all that is in them but on the seventh day he rested that is why Lord God has blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy the first part of a set of related to Creation itself explains what this means by its own Creation in Genesis 1 if you think about Genesis 1 there are six days of creation Now if I had a chalkboard up here I would go over to the chalkboard and put this up a diagram for you but you're just have to do it in your in your your mind the first day is a creation of light the second day is the creation of the sky in the water and the third day is for the creation of the land that's the first 3 days second three days correspond respectively to the first 3 days the fourth day is the creation of the Sun and Moon the fifth day is a creation of the fission and and and birds and the sixth day is a creation of land animals including humans and if you think about it and diagram form the first corresponds to the 4th the 2nd to the 5th and 3rd to the 6th there's a poetical structure to them in which the first Earth order toward the third the second is ordered the 4th and 3rd is ordered for the fifth and he think about and look at how that works it makes perfect sense so the sun and the moon are the source of the light and the Sun and the Moon in the 3rd 1/4 day are the source of the light in the first day the birds and the fish in the fifth day are that for which the water and the air are created on the second day and the land animals of the fifth day aren't that for which the land was created on the third day in other words the first three days are created as a means to something Beyond themselves the second three days are those things that are created that that are that the out that the first three things are oratory only think about something being ordered Ford something else we need a couple of things by that one of the things we mean is what if something is ordered toward another thing it means that it gets its very definition from the thing toward which it is ordered or we might say that it gets its meaning and purpose from that thing toward is it is ordered so the first day the meaning and purpose of the first day is ordered by the third purpose in order of the second by V and the by the fourth rather end of 3rd by of course it's not symmetric is it there's a seventh day because all of those things are ordered toward the last day the seventh day so it wasn't just that God rested on the 7th day but that God ordered all creation toward the rest of the Seventh-Day which is to say that all creation gets its meaning and its purpose being ordered toward the seventh day the seventh day of rest so the first broad part of the third commandment is related to creation of a creation account how much is the area order and purpose of the world is already given to us and a poetic form in which the first response to the 4th II V the 3rd to the 6th and everything to the seventh chord rest in God the second broad part of the third commandment is related to the story that God tells is real about who is real is and therefore because Israelites grafted in as branches there for the story that God tells us about who we are Deuteronomy in Deuteronomy did the second account of the ten in Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 15 says 6 days you may labor and do all your work but the 7th is Sabbath no work may be done let me just I read that pretty much tracks access let me go to the unique part of Deuteronomy and that's this and Deuteronomy 5 for 5:15 for remember that you two were once slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God brought you from there with his strong hand and an outstretched arm that is why the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the sabbath day is entire identity throughout the Old Testament no matter what book you read whether it's the the so-called tour of the law or the prophets or the writings that's the way the Hebrew Bible is divided into the the law of the prop and the writing no matter what you read you see over and over and over again God reminding Israel that he brought them out of Egypt that he created them as the nation by bringing them out of Egypt that he created them as a people by calling them out of Egypt so many of God's commands not just a 10 but all the commands that flow from the Mosaic law refer back to God bringing the people out of Egypt not just bringing them out of Egypt of bringing them out of Egypt for a very specific reason to rescue them from slavery and because they were oppressed because they were slaves they that is the Jews and therefore us are not to oppress others and not to enslave others to be called a people by God to be called into a people by God created as a people by God is to remember that the slavery in Egypt from which they were called what is keeping the Sabbath then again it has a traditional and literal meaning set aside a day of rest for set aside a day for rest and worship just as the second commandment has a literal popular meme not literally not saying the lord's name not using the word God as the as the first name of which was followed by a last name but also so the third commandment it literally has it has a scent literal meaning and of course that meaning is to set aside a day for worship not to work but it also has a broader meaning and that brought her meaning is an is meaning of making time for and a deserving principles of leisure great Catholic philosopher named Josef Pieper wrote a very famous little book very short and very accessible by the way 222 to look it up on Amazon and get it from your local library just called Leisure subtitle well actually called Leisure as the basis of culture Leisure as the basis of culture by a Catholic philosopher named Josef Pieper a p e r and the bookkeeper argues that the basis of the Christian Life the basis of Christian flourishing that toward which Christians are called by God based upon the third commandment based upon the ordering of all things toward rest in God is Leisure that we are called to Leisure now to be sure he has a very specific and in very detailed. nation of what that is it doesn't necessarily even me an easy life for example but it does have a specific connotation closer related to a keeping the Sabbath implicit in the Commandments of course is necessity and goodness of work indeed work is the necessary context for the command to rest while are we resting from where sing from our work so here in the third commandment even before we can start to talk about what it means to have Leisure or what it means to rest we need to talk a little bit about what it means to work and what work is and how we're to understand work in the Christian addition when we work we share in the creative nature of God we participate in the goodness of God's creation we add to it we hold it we shape it we change it our work is a co-operation a cooperation in the work of God it's a participation in the creation of God and therefore work has a dignity and a nobility that is indeed ordained by God as we co-create with God that is to say that when we work and we share in the Creative Nail God we add to it we benefit from it and we bless it work is good necessary and can be made holy work has inherent dignity and that Dignity should be honored and celebrated and did last week you remember if you were here I spoke a great deal about Catholic Social Doctrine and I talked about that encyclical tradition of Catholic Social Doctrine beginning with the encyclical rerum novarum if you pick up an a English translation of round of Aram the subtitle underneath rare Navara which means new things is on the conditions of the worker the very first document in the Catholic Social Doctrine tradition was expressly concerned with work and the worker because work is dignified and therefore the worker has dignity to the extent that that didn't that the Dignity of work is denied or Dignity of the worker is disrespected is to the extent that we disrespect even the very creation of God now this is hard this is a hard thing to understand it's a hard thing to put in practice because to be Brianna says a lot of work that doesn't look very dignified if we say that work has inherent dignity and that Dignity should be celebrated and honored what about work that doesn't look dignified dance I have to do something like this we must look at work not as simply something that we do to put bread on the table at a roof are of our house but clothes on our backs but rather work as something that serves another the most unskilled labor to the most sophisticated scientist has dignity and his or her work as that work is ordered toward service to another in other words we can find dignity in work not in the actual hard labor if that's what it is of the work but rather and what the work does but the work serves what the work is ordered toward and we can take honor and should take honor in that work more importantly you and I observing the worker at his work must have a respect for the profound Dignity of so that we respect the Dignity of the worker even work that to us doesn't seem very dignified that has very practical implications and very practical aspects including include way that we treat people who service at restaurants the people who pick up our trash the people who deliver our mail the people who spread the the lawn treatment on our lawn the people who know we have an obligation until firm the Dignity of that work by affirming the Dignity of the worker it can be done in little ways but it must be done as part of what it means and why why is that the case because that workers doing that work to serve someone else and the end of that work is to serve someone else even though it obviously has the implication and then necessity of putting food on his own table indeed we have to like seriously things like in this context family wages honoring all forms of Labor including the least skilled to the most sophisticated this is another area folks and which we must be careful to take our bearings from the entirety of Catholic moral thought rather than from some other story that attempts to make claims Upon Our moral lives we can't dismiss discussions for example of wealth redistribution and other kinds of social welfare just because they are associated with people or parties to hold positions that are repugnant to our Catholic faith why is that because we're not defined play anything other than our Catholic faith and if our Catholic faith leads us to conclusions that might coincide with someone with whom we disagree otherwise that doesn't mean that we we we withdraw consent to those good things that the which teaches us just give a specific example we are all the way our people talking about the so-called wings of the church that they will I what I called tell my students the the anti-abortion winning in the social justice Wayne self is a scandal by the way to the public because I want us to be Catholic Social doctrines not liberal not liberal Catholic Social Doctrine Catholics not liberal or conservative Catholics not anti-abortion Catholics for social justice cast and too often it's the case that a person can be identified as one or the other but not both why is that it's because they aren't taking or we aren't taking our moral bearings from the entirety of Christian true at the Catholic faith but rather we're taking our bearings from political allegiance and molding our moral lines to that instead so those of us who are on the front lines of the anti abortion movement but but are not crazy about for example social welfare policies are safety-net policies or redistribution of wealth need to think again about where what's informing our More Alive are those of us who are all four a broad social safety nets and perhaps of Public Health Care and an inn in more expenditures on on young families or children in poverty but don't they don't care about abortion with those p we need to ask ourselves what's informing our moralize is it the politics of particular party or the platform of a particular party or is it the entirety of the faith and work while it's usually identified with that social justice wing of the church work in the Dignity of the work and the Dignity of the worker must be understood as a part of the entirety of Catholic a Catholic life said all that however let's get back to the third command as important as work is as dignified as it is as much as we have a responsibility to to recognize the Dignity of work and therefore the Dignity of the worker we cannot make an idol out of work like anything else work can be idolized like the family can be ili's like wealth can be ili's a car can be I live at the house of a vacation destination all of these things can be idolized but still can work we can't make an idol of work in violation of the very commandment in which work is implied work is necessary but it's not the sufficient condition for an abundant life nor is work a sufficient condition for a life in obedience to God what is work for at the end of the day I like work to golf what is the purpose of golf do you know what the purpose of golf is you got hers it's the playlist golf write the object of God is the playlist golf the object of work is to not work the object of work is to not work what do I mean by that I mean that work is ordered Ward something other than itself and therefore as I said earlier if something is ordered towards something other than itself it gets its purpose and its meaning from that other thing work is ordered for dressed the purpose of work is not to work and if we don't see that we can make an idol out of work just as much as we can make an idol out of everything else and we might think that we're being virtuous when Workaholics we're being Sinners when we're Workaholics because we're violating the third commandment keeping the Sabbath therefore has a broader meaning than simply reserving a day it has the broader meaning of including in our lives time for leisure time for what's what we sometimes called mediating institution family clubs guilds voluntary organization charitable Endeavors and even recreational activities work points for those things and get this meeting for those things why because those are things that give us a richer life both in our own spiritual times and serving the lives of others a second way of keeping the Sabbath holy other than just that the the simple understanding is through spiritual contemplation and prayer we keep the Sabbath holy not simply by coming to church on Sunday but rather by a life of spiritual contemplation and prayer and work orders us toward that here's the test if we're too busy to work. to pray if we're too busy to pray because of work then work has become our Idol if we're too busy to worship because of work then we're worshipping I'll work please do the third and that is liturgical worship were called to worship God God who creates us God who calls us to be co-creators with his creation but he calls us to be co-creators with an order just remember the Sabbath to keep it holy not simply one day of the week but time for those things that are not work that enrich our spiritual eyes spiritual contemplation and prayer and finally liturgical worship rest is that toward which our work is ordered and we must not make an idol out of work this is the essence of the third commandment Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath but all are ordered for the ultimate rest and him who call Zach from the Egypt of our sin thank you how to take buttons sure any questions or accusations or observations out of the blue I'm I'm not sure I'm not sure to beat to be perfect the songs we sing in math mystery the movie but I think that probably is part of the reason there was a because it because it is sent for a couple of reasons first of all yes because it it it trivializes the name so that's one reason that the other is that we we we should my talk about the story that forms us part of the story the forms us is a reverence for the name such that we don't say the name now we do we say Jesus and we say price and we say Mary we all see all the Saints named we say them but in the context of the second commandment and Antiquity it was very common not to say these names and indeed anytime now that it's not the case here because the inscription above the cross here is the is the initial the four words Jesus Christ King of the Jews which was inscribed above in Latin which is inscribed above Jesus on the cross after after Jesus crucifixion but sometimes you'll see you'll see like it st. Gertrude for example above above the the altar you'll see it looks like it looks like the English letters I asked and an XR it's actually the Greek letters that you owed of Sigma Chi rho those are in below and beneath a tanker to this says Nikkei that that I ask which is really the Greek eoto Sigma and that XR which is really the actually looks like a pea looks like an English pea but it's the it's the Greek corresponds to our KERO those are called those are holy abbreviations and was extremely common Antiquity never even to spell out Jesus or Christ or Mary or any of the saint of reverence for the name and that's why you see those initials you'll see two or sometimes three but often two letters that stand for the name instead of saying the name so I think that I'm not sure that that's the answer to your question but certainly if it that is part of the answer then that's a reason not to the sing the song another is not the same as the music is awful but that's another thing sorry they tell my students I guess I got to keep it real I see a farmer back there yes yes yeah oh that's a really good question that's really the question so let me start with the third commandment with work work involved in this gets us more into labor Theory but work most importantly involves whenever exclude any but work most importantly involves principles of solidarity and principles of subsidiarity by solidarity we mean workers of the World Unite its letter is a Marxist phrase but cuz it's a Marxist phrase doesn't mean that it hasn't doesn't have some teach us something about the importance of worker solidarity and so for example the doctrine of solidarity is the doctrine that is used has been used for a hundred hundred fifty years by the church to defend and support an advocate for labor unions so the doctor was solidarity you know labor unions are not a creation of the Catholic church but certainly labor unions got there early moral justification from the Catholic church now we can talk about modern unions and how they departed from the purpose of the early unions if we want to and that and we could have that discussion I don't want we're not going to have that discussion here but the fact is properly understood unions are important part because they join the worker in solidarity to be able to bargain for rights that he wouldn't be able to get on his own but the other one is subsidiarity subsidiarity is the document says that things are to be ordered. In the lower the most local means possible to the extent that our AAA company is able to enable workers to have the benefits that that are so such good benefits such work at work good working conditions fringe benefits Health Care salary vacation hours and so forth that's possible and labor unions are needed in labor unions are necessary and shouldn't be so that's why it doesn't ask for documents to City area now as far as the second commandment taking the lord's name in vain just just as an aspect of common good if we are truly ordered our if our lives are ordered toward God in such a way that we truly are not taking his name in vain in other words give his name meaning when we by implication are necessarily serving the common good because we are a people who are called to service and that services for the common good and of course there isn't any Christian doctrine Twisted by the Catholic faith that doesn't in somewhere have in it seeds of dignity because it's all about the Dignity of the human person that's a good question any others yes Outback in the back yeah yeah that's a really good question of course you know I was thinking earlier about Chick-fil-A which doesn't open on Sundays because they take seriously that day of the week is my answer to that sincerely wrong to do those things as long as it is but it is necessary for those people who serve other people on Sunday that have the same access to Leisure as we have who they're serving on Sunday so one of the things that we don't want to do is to strain strain out a gnat and swallow a camel in other words we don't want to say we don't want to have a rigid understanding the Sabbath is not doing anything on Sunday and yet ignore the broader implications of the Sabbath which is a 8 work working conditions and social conditions that allow people to have the Leisure the Sabbath represents so so so even though we might even though yes we might say in an ideal situation is that we don't force others to work on for example Sunday by not going out to dinner or not going to Kings Island so 4th and and that's fine I don't have any objection to that but if but if that's the Soul Focus admitted misses the larger of meaning of leisure and rest and often times and this is one of the ironies you'll find people who will refuse to do anything like that on Sunday but will resist social programs that help to provide the means by which people can have the kind of leisure that we enjoy who are able to purchase it ourselves because Leisure is something that we purchase and if if people are not can't afford to purchase it on a particular day we have to work for and endorse and agree with social programs economic policies and so forth and regulations that do give people the ability to purchase that Leisure that we can purchase questioning over here was there one I thought there was no okay A Nails all right thank you again I'll see you next week I love the affirmation on work and certainly lots of think about for leisure I can but I'm going to put some intentional spot on how to handle Sundays from here on out you're next week we will meet back here for the 4th and the 8th commandment called morality as storytelling as we look forward to that thank you again for being here with us blessings on all of you as you go home tonight have safe travel and we'll see you next week thank you

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